TALLINN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture COMPARISON AND ANALYSIS OF WATER DISCHARGE ESTIMATION METHODS FOR THE NARVA RIVER NARVA JÕE VOOLUHULKADE HINDAMISMEETODITE VÕRDLUS JA ANALÜÜS MASTER THESIS Student: Yaroslav Kobets Student code: 184544EABM Supervisor: Alvina Reihan, PhD, Senior Lector Tallinn 2020 (On the reverse side of title page) AUTHOR’S DECLARATION Hereby I declare that I have written this thesis independently. No academic degree has been applied for based on this material. All works, major viewpoints and data of the other authors used in this thesis have been referenced. “.......” .................... 2020 Author: .............................. /signature / Thesis is in accordance with terms and requirements “.......” .................... 2020 Supervisor: …......................... /signature/ Accepted for defence “.......”....................2020 Chairman of theses defence commission: ................................................. /name and signature/ Non-exclusive Licence for Publication and Reproduction of GraduationTthesis¹ I, Yaroslav Kobets (date of birth: 20.04.1989) hereby 1. grant Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) a non-exclusive license for my thesis “Comparison and analysis of water discharge estimation methods for the Narva river”, (title of the graduation thesis) supervised by Alvina Reihan, (Supervisor’s name) 1.1 reproduced for the purposes of preservation and electronic publication, incl. to be entered in the digital collection of TalTech library until expiry of the term of copyright; 1.2 published via the web of TalTech, incl. to be entered in the digital collection of TalTech library until expiry of the term of copyright. 1.3 I am aware that the author also retains the rights specified in clause 1 of this license. 2. I confirm that granting the non-exclusive license does not infringe third persons' intellectual property rights, the rights arising from the Personal Data Protection Act or rights arising from other legislation. ¹ Non-exclusive Licence for Publication and Reproduction of Graduation Thesis is not valid during the validity period of restriction on access, except the university`s right to reproduce the thesis only for preservation purposes. ______________ (signature) ______________ (date) 3 Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture THESIS TASK Student: Yaroslav Kobets 184544EABM (name, student code) Study programme: EABM03/18, Environmental Engineering and Management (code and title) main speciality: Master of Science in Engineering (MSc) Supervisor: PhD, Senior Lector, Alvina Reihan, +372 552 4672 (position, name, phone) Consultants: ……………………………………………………………..(name, position) …………………………………………………………………………………… (company, phone, e-mail) Thesis topic: (in English) Comparison and analysis of water discharge estimation methods for the Narva river (in Estonian) Narva jõe vooluhulkade hindamismeetodite võrdlus ja analüüs Thesis main objectives: 1. Gathering the data on the river Narva discharge from Estonia and Russia; 2. Analysing the data, methods used by both countries; 3. Giving solution/recommendations for reliable discharge estimation. Thesis tasks and time schedule: No Task description Deadline 1. Data gathering 30.09.2019 2. Data, methods analysing 20.12.2019 3. Providing the outcome 30.04.2020 Language: English Deadline for submission of thesis: “.......”..................2020a Student: Yaroslav Kobets .......……........ “.......”..................2019a /signature/ Supervisor: Alvina Reihan .......……........ “.......”....................2019a /signature/ Consultant: .......……... .......……........ “.......”....................2019a /signature/ Head of study programme: Karin Pachel .............. “.......”....................2019a /signature/ Terms of thesis closed defence and/or restricted access conditions to be formulated on the reverse side 4 CONTENTS PREFACE ....................................................................................................... 7 List of abbreviations and symbols ...................................................................... 8 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 9 1. BACKGROUND ........................................................................................ 11 1.1 HELCOM ............................................................................................. 11 1.2 Transboundary and boundary rivers ........................................................ 13 2 STUDY AREA ............................................................................................. 16 2.1 The Narva river ................................................................................... 16 2.1.1 Pollution transported by the Narva river .......................................... 16 2.1.2 Hydromorphology........................................................................ 17 2.1.3 Hydrological Monitoring ................................................................ 22 2.1.4 Russian hydrometric station (AHC, АГК) .......................................... 25 3 METHODS ................................................................................................. 27 3.1 Discharge estimation methods overview ................................................... 27 3.1.1 Discharge ratings using simple stage-discharge relations ................... 27 3.1.2 Discharge ratings using the velocity index method ............................ 29 3.1.3 Discharge ratings using slope as a parameter ................................... 30 3.1.4 Linear interpolation ..................................................................... 31 4 ANALYSIS ................................................................................................. 32 4.1 Discharge measurements methods used now ............................................ 32 4.1.1 Methods used in the Republic of Estonia .......................................... 32 4.1.2 Methods used in the Russian Federation .......................................... 34 4.1.3 Comparison of the methods used by both countries ........................... 37 4.1.4 Height datum ............................................................................. 40 4.2 Available data analysis .......................................................................... 41 4.2.1 Daily discharges, historical observations. ......................................... 41 4.2.2 Measured discharges. .................................................................. 44 4.2.3 Recent measured discharges. ........................................................ 45 4.2.4 Wind, sea & stages ...................................................................... 50 4.3 Harmonized discharge estimation method ................................................ 56 4.3.1 Choice of the method for the Narva river discharge estimation ............ 56 4.3.2 The Narva river discharge estimation process ................................... 57 5 Results..................................................................................................... 67 6 Additional analysis of the rating using slope as a parameter as a method and its justification ................................................................................................. 71 7 Discussion ................................................................................................ 81 8 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 84 SUMMARY ................................................................................................... 85 LIST OF REFERENCES .................................................................................... 87 Appendix 1 List of Figures .............................................................................. 91 Appendix 2 List of tables ................................................................................ 93 PREFACE The thesis topic was initiated by the supervisor of the work, PhD, Senior Lector, Alvina Reihan from Tallinn University of Technology. The study goes along with the NARVAWATMAN1 project, which is conducted with the financial support of the Estonia – Russia Cross Border Cooperation Programme 2014-20202. The project’s main objective is to find a harmonized solution for the Narva river water discharge/pollution load estimation and provide the recommendations to HELCOM (Helsinki Commission). The study focuses on the comparison and analysing existing and used techniques of the Narva river discharge estimation. It is aimed to find the harmonized solution which would suit both countries (Estonia and Russia) who share the most of its catchment area, the river itself and have fundamentally different approaches in discharge estimation. Most of the thesis work was performed in Tallinn, Estonia with short trips to Narva city for the fieldwork and data gathering under the frames of the NARVAWATMAN project. The data was provided by the contracting parties of the project: State Hydrological Institute of Russia and Environment Agency of the Republic of Estonia. Special thanks to hydrologist Anna Põrh (Environment Agency of the Republic of Estonia) for fast data providing. Author expresses gratitude to Estonia – Russia Cross Border Cooperation Programme 2014-20202 for financial support that helped to conduct this research and bring his ideas to life. Estonia-Russia Cross Border Cooperation Programme 2014-2020 aims to foster